The San Francisco 49ers may have earned a few new fans this week, but it’s not because of their most recent win on the football field—it’s because one of their players went out of his way to eliminate the cafeteria debt at a local middle school.
Richard Sherman, the 49ers cornerback player, paid off all $7,500 of the outstanding lunch debt at Cabrillo Middle School this week.
Cabrillo Principal Stan Garber had been working as a docent at the nearby 49ers museum when Sherman pulled him aside and handed him the check.
Garber later told ABC News that the donation will benefit more than 60 young students with unpaid lunch balances. “It’s the most generous thing to happen for these kids,” he told reporters. “It was the perfect way to give back and help them. It was the kindest, most generous gesture.”
The donation was made through the football player’s Richard Sherman Family Foundation, a charitable organization that “was formed in 2013 by Richard Sherman to provide students in low-income communities with school supplies and clothing so they can more adequately achieve their goals.”
According to KPIX, Sherman’s foundation later sent a letter to Cabrillo Middle’s Nutrition Services Department saying, “We have found that eliminating student lunch debt is one way to help assist students and their families in relieving some of the stress that comes with attending school on a daily basis.
“The last thing any child should have to worry about is being able to afford eating breakfast and lunch at school; we aim to do our part in eliminating that obstacle,” it concluded.
This is not the first time that Sherman has paid off school lunch debt; last month, he wrote a check to pay off all $20,000 in lunch debt for the Tacoma Public School System.
Collectively over the course of the last month six years, the foundation has reportedly raised more than $1.5 million to benefit underserved schools, students, and communities.
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